Editing Cædmon (section)

===Bede's account===
The sole source of original information about Cædmon's life and work is [[Bede]]'s ''Historia ecclesiastica''.<ref>Book IV, Chapter 24. The most recent edition is [[#colgraveandmynors1969|Colgrave and Mynors 1969]]</ref> According to Bede, Cædmon was a [[lay brother]] who cared for the animals at the monastery Streonæshalch (now known as [[Whitby Abbey]]). One evening, while the monks were feasting, singing, and playing a harp, Cædmon left early to sleep with the animals because he knew no songs. The impression clearly given by St. Bede is that he lacked the knowledge of how to compose the lyrics to songs. While asleep, he had a dream in which "someone" (''quidam'') approached him and asked him to sing ''principium creaturarum'', "the beginning of created things." After first refusing to sing, Cædmon subsequently produced a short [[eulogy|eulogistic]] poem praising God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Upon awakening the next morning, Caedmon remembered everything he had sung and added additional lines to his poem. He told his foreman about his dream and gift and was taken immediately to see the [[abbess]], believed to be [[Hilda of Whitby|St Hilda of Whitby]]. The abbess and her counsellors asked Cædmon about his vision and, satisfied that it was a gift from God, gave him a new commission, this time for a poem based on "a passage of sacred history or doctrine", by way of a test. 

When Cædmon returned the next morning with the requested poem, he was invited to take [[monastic vows]]. The abbess ordered her scholars to teach Cædmon sacred history and doctrine, which after a night of thought, Bede records, Cædmon would turn into the most beautiful verse. According to Bede, Cædmon was responsible for a large number of splendid vernacular poetic texts on a variety of Christian topics.

After a long and zealously pious life, Cædmon died like a [[saint]]: receiving a [[wikt:premonition|premonition]] of death, he asked to be moved to the abbey's hospice for the terminally ill where, having gathered his friends around him, he died after receiving the Holy Eucharist, just before [[nocturns]]. Although he is often listed as a saint, this is not confirmed by Bede and it has been argued that such assertions are incorrect.<ref>[[#stanley1998|Stanley 1998]]</ref>

The details of Bede's story, and in particular of the miraculous nature of Cædmon's poetic inspiration, are not generally accepted by scholars as being entirely accurate, but there seems no good reason to doubt the existence of a poet named Cædmon. Bede's narrative has to be read in the context of the Christian belief in miracles, and it shows at the very least that Bede, an educated and intelligent man, believed Cædmon to be an important figure in the history of English intellectual and religious life.<ref name="odonnell2005">[[#odonnell2005|O'Donnell 2005]]</ref>